Have I mentioned that I hate subbing?

So, I subbed two days last week.

On Monday, I was in a 2nd grade class at a school that is in the neighborhood, but had never been inside of before. Naturally, based on my track record of previous sub jobs - especially the most recent 6 days in kindergarten hell - I wasn't looking forward to the day. I walked into the classroom and saw that all of the student work on the walls was written in Spanish. Great. I got put in a Spanish-bilingual classroom and I really don't speak Spanish. Luckily, the lesson plans were written in English, and the teacher said that the day could be conducted in English, but the students should speak to each other throughout the day in Spanish. When the kids came in the room they exclaimed, "We've got a sub! Do we have to speak in Spanish??" When I informed them that my Spanish wasn't up to snuff and that we would be doing everything in English they all cheered. This was a "Dual Immersion" classroom where it was 50% native Spanish speakers and 50% native English speakers - which I think is pretty cool. If you're kid is raised in a Spanish-speaking household, they will get instruction in Spanish, and, throughout the elementary years they gradually get more and more of the instruction in English. On the flipside, if your kid is raised in an English-speaking household, you can put them in this class track and they can become bilingual as well.

So, not much to say about the day - overall it went pretty well. There were a couple of troublemakers, but nothing that broke the bank and caused me to yell. At one point in the day I noticed that a student had put a box on the teacher's desk. It was a Frederick's of Hollywood shoebox with holes punched in the top. Ok. First question: Who sends their kid to school with a Frederick's of Hollywood shoebox??!?? Second question: Is this kid's mom a callgirl or a hooker? Strangely, there was a "doll" inside the box with a "head" made out of a pair of nylons stuffed with cotton. Just weird all around. Mysteriously, the box disappeared by the end of the day.

For "read aloud" time, the teacher had me read from the Austere Academy, the FIFTH book in the Series of Unfortunate Events book series. LOVE THOSE BOOKS, and I think that I made my love of them quite well known to the kids. The thing that I couldn't understand, though, was why the teacher hadn't read to them from the first 4 books in the series. Why not start from the beginning? After I read a chapter, we made sentences using "describing words" to describe each character, and then drew pictures of our favorite characters.

My sub job on Thursday wasn't so great. First of all, I only took the job because it was supposed to be subbing for a "Technology Resource Teacher". The school was one of the schools out in the WORST part of town - the "ghetto" [I hate that word...], if you will - the part of town where you'll find "the projects", the most crime, and the most homicides. SO, I only took the job because I thought, "Wow, I'd love to be the computer teacher for a day. You just have to deal with a couple of classes coming to you for an hour, and then you leave." Well, naturally, as happened to me the last time I subbed out in this part of town, when I got to the school the principal said, "Oh, well we have another teacher who called in sick today, so you'll have to sub for her." "I KNEW IT!" I think I exclaimed out loud. It was a 2nd grade class which the principal described as a "bunch of REALLY sweet kids". Code for: GOOD LUCK WITH THIS BUNCH. I walked the students in, they put there stuff away, and 2 [TWO!] adults come in to the room explaining that they are there for extra help. But they are supposed to be a sweet bunch. Why ever would I need two adult helpers?? Again, OVERALL, it wasn't the worst subbing experience that I've ever had, but it certainly drained me. The two adults only stayed for the morning - they must have felt like I was competent and could handle things on my own. The principal even came by during lunch and asked if I could sub for the same teacher on Monday. "OH, DARN! I've already accepted a sub job at another school on Monday" - which is the truth.

I've decided that I'm a good teacher, but a not-so-great sub. I tend to have the students' attention and cooperation at the beginning of the day, but then lose it and can't get it back. Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. One girl, the most difficult child in the room, said to me, "You're a bad teacher!" For a split second it stung, and I wondered if she wasn't right. Quickly, however, I came to my senses and said to her, "Actually, I'm a really good teacher. I'm here to help you, but it's you who won't allow me to help you."

On very little notice, I came up with really interesting ways to convey the lessons that I was supposed to teach - totally on the fly, and something that I didn't even really have to do [I do this a lot - it's just the way that I am]. I could have very easily just stood up there and read from the teacher's edition and then had the students do workbook pages as assigned, but I put some effort into it. At Math time, the students were supposed to do some sheets on "Fact Families" [basically, when you've got 3 numbers that form 4 different equations such as: 6+4=10, 4+6=10, 10-6=4, and 10-4=6]. Well, it was my brilliant idea to write on cards the numbers "4", "6", and "10", and then stick them to the chalkboard and write the "+" and "=" signs between them. First I did 6+4=10, and then I took the 3 number cards and switched the 6 and the 4, making sure that they noticed that I was using the same three numbers, but just switching two of them. I did this for all 4 equations, and then passed out linker cubes to each table so that they could stick 4 orange cubes together, then 6 green cubes together, and then stick those together to make 10. I did ALL OF THIS without any prompting from the regular classroom teacher. AND, this all would've gone over like gangbusters... if the kids had been paying attention. Math time really sucked. I ended up losing my voice because I kept saying over and over, "Ok, some of you are working ahead but you aren't getting the right answers because you haven't been listening. I'm here to help you - I'm TRYING to help you - but you need to make the choice to let me help you." I also had to pull out the tried-and-true "I'm going to write the letters to the words 'Free Choice' on the board. If you want to have some free choice time at the end of the day, you need to have at least one letter left on the board. Every time I have to ask you to be quiet, I'll erase a letter. Every time you are doing something that I ask, you'll get a letter back." So, at the end of the day, the students had "F" on the board. Yeah, they were loud and disrespectful and I had to reluctantly leave them with 1 letter left because I WANTED them to have some free choice time, as, I NEEDED A BREAK.

One of the adults that was there in the morning ended up being the school librarian. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, just about my age, dressed pretty hip and seemed approachable so during lunch I asked if I could talk to him about his job at the end of the day. After school, I went to the library and he was cleaning up after having run a Book Fair all week. Turns out, he doesn't even have library certification at all. In fact, he said that he doesn't think that many of the librarians in the district have such specialized degrees. Ok. Does this mean that if I got my library and information sciences certification that I would have a better chance at a job, or does this mean that there just aren't many librarians in the district at all?? I guess he just got the job because he had experience working with "this population of students" [read: African-American], plus he had worked a bit with the library software at the last school he taught at. Plus, he said that being in the library was really only 30% of his job. The rest of the time he was a Reading Specialist, providing extra language arts support for students who needed it. Again, he said that he didn't have any specific training/schooling for this position either.

All that I know is that I walked into that library and just felt at home - like it would be the coolest job in the school. Getting knew materials, bringing classes in to check books out, suggesting titles to kids based on the knowledge of their specific interests, doing OVER THE TOP read alouds, maybe starting after school book groups or reading clubs, coming up with displays around the school and in the library itself promoting authors, new titles, or themes. Reading through the course descriptions at the San Jose State website a few weeks ago, all of the courses actually sounded really interesting. Coincidentally, I walked into the new Borders bookstore across from SBC Park the other day and immediately saw this woman that I worked with at the downtown Borders years ago. It was a strange coincidence to see her because I had just found out the week before that she was taking online Library Sciences classes and worked part-time at the main public library. We talked for a while - I didn't learn that much from her because her program wasn't a Master's Program or a program designed for people with teaching credentials, but it just seemed fated that I should run into her.

Last weekend was the Now & Zen Fest thingy that I won tickets for on the radio. Brian and I showed up at a suitable hour only to find out that Morrissey had cancelled due to illness. Well, screw it. The only other band that I NEEDED to see was Tears For Fears, and I knew that they would be touring on their own this fall, so we looked into how we could return the tickets for a refund. No, I didn't initially pay for them, but I thought that we could at least some money off of them. The ticket company was taking tickets back, but not comp tickets [even though our tickets said NOTHING about being promos, there was no proof - credit card receipt, etc. - that we bought them]. A guy walked by the line asking if anyone had extra tickets and within moments Brian and I walked away with a $40 profit on FREE TICKETS. I mentioned that as long as we were there, it was a nice day, we had a blanket and some sandwiches, we might as well find a place to sit outside the fencing to at least LISTEN to Tears For Fears. Well, we did one better and found a spot on a hill that had a direct, unobstructed view of the stage. We called it the Free Section, and, within an hour, it filled up quite quickly. Sneaky, cheeky buggers, eh?

Oh, and we got a new stove. Without even sending someone else out to see if they could fix our old one, our landlord just ordered, and delivered, us a new one. Whatever. Thing is, and I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but, the new stove is a cheap piece of junk. There is NO insulation in it AT ALL, so when you turn the oven on, the whole thing heats right up. It's so hot that you can't even touch the outside of the stove. Junky piece of junk.

WHOOSH!

That, my friends, is the sound of my teaching career going up in flames - in a "bomb exploding spewing massive amounts of razor sharps bits of shrapnel" flamey kind of way.

Yesterday, which I was initially under the impression would be my last day in my friend's classroom, was an unmitigated disaster. Truly horrifying in an almost comedic way. I got there in a fairly good mood - thinking, again, that it would be the last time I would have to subject myself to its torture - only to find my friend, Monica, freaking out and saying that she spent the whole morning throwing up. She said that she had just had a meeting with the asshole 1st grade teacher across the hall and the principal and they wanted the two of us to split the class in half for the whole day. Nice that there was a meeting about what I was supposed to be doing at this school that I wasn't a part of. Real nice.

So Monica hands me a math worksheet to work on with my group for an hour, and then a big Health book to do for another hour. The school day for the kindergarteners is, roughly broken up into 4 blocks, so I would take half the kids in the morning and do 2 lessons with them for the first 2 blocks of the day, and then Monica and I would switch kids after lunch, and I would do the same 2 lessons with the other half of the kids. That way, all of the kids would be cycled through my 2 lessons and Monica's two lessons. Half an hour before school started this was all sprung on me. I scrambled to get the room next door in some order - setting up tables and chairs, frantically picking a couple of books for read alouds, formulating some lesson plans for my 2 blocks, gathering the necessary materials, etc. The kids are brought into the room in the morning and I take half to the room next door. 11 kids - much better than the 25 as a whole. My morning lesson involved making patterns [red, blue, red, blue, etc.] with linker cubes - not SO bad, since this was the same math program that we used in Miles' class last year, and this was a lesson that I had done in his class, too. The second block was going to be more challenging. I was given the health book and told to talk to the kids about "safety". Ok. I had other things planned, some counting games, a LONG read aloud book, etc. just in case I needed some stuff to fill the time. Well, the first block went alright. Some kids still had problems following directions. I swear, you can talk as loud as possible and these kids still don't hear you - it's bizarre. It's like they have tuned their brains so that your voice just becomes white noise to them. Anyway, it's recess time and I take my kids out to recess and I hear from someone that Monica is really sick and is probably going to take the rest of the day off. Shit. Another teacher watches the kids at recess so I went up to Monica's room only to find that she isn't in there. I found the principal and she told me that Monica was "resting" in the extra room [the room that I was using]. Sure enough, Monica is in there lying on the floor saying that she'll do everything that she can not to screw me over, but that she is majorly sick. I told her that I wasn't surprised, "You are exhaused - totally spent - mentally and physically." She then proceeds to start crying and saying, "Dude, I just don't know how I'm going to do this. I don't think I can do it." I comforted her as best I could, and then ran downstairs to see how things were going on the playground.

Monica ended up going home shortly after our discussion, and I was left with this batch of monsters. Monica had no lesson plans for me, no ideas of what I could now do with the whole class. I was perfectly prepared to do the same two lessons with both halves of the class individually, but now I had to find things to do with EVERYONE at once. In the hallway, the woman running the Book Fair [who said the nice things to me the other day - see previous post...] handed me some papers and said, "Can you have your students draw pictures of a 'Fairy Telling Bird'? We're having a contest and I haven't received very many submissions. The winning entry will get $5." Well, there is something that we can do when the kids get back from recess. The kids noisily filed back in [as usual] and I grabbed a book written by Jamie Lee Curtis about emotions to read with the kids before getting to work on our time-wasting drawings. Yep, Monica got me to help her, but who did I get to help me?? One of the girls in class said, "No, read this one," so I ended up reading this cool book about a spider seducing, and then ultimately devouring, this female fly. It was a little advanced for the kids, with flowery poetic language, but it was about spiders and flies so the kids kind of liked it. After that, I had the kids go back to their tables, where we would then start our drawings. Well, the noise level got out of control rather quickly, and they just weren't listening to my instructions. So, I turned off the light and hollered. ALRIGHT! I NEED IT COMPLETELY QUIET RIGHT NOW! They got quiet, and I paced around the room looking into each and every eye as I made my grand speech: "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS. Ever since that day that I walked into this room you have all acted like complete animals. You are all WAY better than that. This may work for your other teacher, but I'm not going to have it anymore! This is KINDERGARTEN, not preschool. We listen when spoken to here. We keep our hands to ourselves here. I want all of you to go into 1st grade as if you are so smart that you could probably jump to 2nd grade. But, we can't do ANY learning if you keep behaving the way that you have been behaving. You are all incredibly special, intelligent, wonderful people, and I know that you are all capable of MUCH better than what you've been doing. Now, you are all going to start behaving better. Got it? GOT IT?!" Most muttered, "Got it," and then proceeded to start acting like animals again.

You know, at this point, I kind of felt like this might be my big break. Maybe Monica would just quit and they would offer me the job. This could work. Well, I knew that it wouldn't work when I picked this one particularly disrespectful girl up and screamed in her face, "SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW!" only to look over and see the principal standing right next to me. From that moment on, things just kept going downhill. It was now lunchtime and the principal, with the assistance of the jackass 1st grade teacher, led the kids down to the lunchroom. I followed, tail between my legs, and said to the principal, "I'm really sorry. It's just rough in there. If you don't want me to finish out the day I completely understand." She said to me, "Well, I just want to be sure that you can keep things under control in there," and my heart sank. This was the end for me. It was all over. Everything that I had worked so hard for just flew out the window and blew up in a firey ball of flame and smoke. I felt so small and horrible and incompetant. Truly, a low. And, since I had to throw together a plan for the rest of the day, I didn't even get to eat all of my lunch.

Well, I finished out the day, and the principal ended up sending TWO helpers into the room with me. Humiliatingly enough, one of them was a STUDENT TEACHER from the 1st grade classroom. Luckily, these two helpers got so see just what a challenge this group of kids is. At second recess I said to the student teacher, "You know, this morning I realized why this class is so difficult. I had heard from a seasoned teacher that a lot of elementary level teaching is teaching students socialization skills, but with this group that's ALL that it is right now. I just can't believe that most of these kids come here without ANY conception of how to behave in public. Did their parents never set boundaries? Was there any discipline at home? It makes me sad that some of these kids just don't know hot to behave themselves AT ALL."

So, I barely made it through the day. I got them out at the end of school and stuck around until the very last kids got on the bus and were picked up by a family member - I was out there FAR longer than any other teacher at the school. I walked back into the room and tried to gain my composure and straighten things up. It got to be an hour or so after school, and NO ONE had come in to the room to talk to me about how things went, or whether or not Monica would be back the next day, or whether or not they even wanted me back there at all. I was ticked off, so I ended up calling Monica. She told me that she was sick as a dog, implying that it was some bug that she picked up - yeah, right - and that she wouldn't be in the next day. I told her that I wouldn't be coming back, but I would draw up some sub plans in her place. Frustrated with everything, I went to talk to the principal. I told her, "I apologize for today, and, that said, I think it's best for all involved if I don't come back tomorrow. I know in my heart that I am a great teacher, but it's REALLY tough in there, and the whole situation has been odd from the start. Monica is a great teacher, but her methods are not at all my methods. It's strange to be in there and know that I would do things in a completely different way, but have to follow her ways. Monica has been throwing herself into this job and, frankly, I think that the reason she is sick is because of just sheer exhaustion." I was also proud of myself for telling her that I was disappointed that NO ONE had come to me afterschool to talk to me about the next day. I also said that I was upset that NO ONE explained to me from the get-go that I was there for more than just "extra support", but that it was expected that I would be planning and taking half of the class.

The thing that busts my butt the most about the whole situation is that I came out smelling the worst in the whole deal. I'm the one that now looks completely incompetant because I didn't want to bad mouth a friend. Well, what was I supposed to do, go up to the principal and tell her that Monica is, probably, having a bit of a nervous breakdown, has no control over the kids either, and that she frequently seems to just kind of "wing it", only coming up with lessons at the last minute? That there is very little structure in the room, and that there are no classroom rules posted and that it doesn't seem like she even came up with a student-generated list of rules, and that there isn't a real daily schedule posted, and that she doesn't seem to be following the language arts or math curriculums, etc. Sure, I can sit here and say, Wow, I would do this and that SO differently, but, who knows? I just know that I wouldn't walk into that room everyday without know EXACTLY what we were going to be doing at every moment in the day. Our community circle, EVERYDAY, would talk about how we should value listening, mutual respect, etc. - all of the things that these kids NEED to be reminded of CONSTANTLY. Also, I wouldn't have let them get away with ANYTHING from Day 1. If, on the first day of school they couldn't get into a straight, quiet line [and I would also put a piece of brightly colored tape on the floor by the door so that they would know EXACTLY where to stand...] then we would go back to our seats and try it again, over and over and over and over until we got it right. And, because I don't want to blame anyone else, or make a friend look bad, I come out smelling the worst...

On a somewhat related note, Monica got another NEW STUDENT one day before the 10-day cutoff [yesterday] whereby all students above the limit of 20 in a class needed to be placed elsewhere. As far as I know, today there were still 25 kids in that room. Monica said that she went to a new teacher training session last Saturday and met a Kindergarten teacher who only had 14 [FOURTEEN!] kids in her room. This district is stupid... and blows.

This morning, a guy finally came to look at our stove. Two days ago, I called the landlord-rep woman after a shitty day at school. I was not in a good mood, and I was prepared to rip this woman a new one if she didn't get on the ball. She proceeded to tell me that repairmen have tried calling us but haven't gotten us at home. "Well, they should LEAVE A MESSAGE. We have voicemail!" I told her that we were sick of their waffling and that if we didn't get some quick action that we were going to be writing a letter to the rent board. To this she responded, "What are you saying?" "I'm saying that you are our landlord and you have to respond in a timely fashion when something in our apartment isn't working." You know what she said next?? "Well, you guys broke the stove."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

I ripped into her as promised: "Look, lady, we didn't break anything. This is from normal wear and tear. Our stove is an old relic and there is no way that we can fix it ourselves. We aren't going to be toying around with gas lines and risk getting blown up. This is YOUR responsibility, not ours." Well, so the guy came this morning, and, of course, as if on cue, the oven - WHOOSH! - started right up. The guy muttered something in broken English and left. Naturally, as of the time of writing this, a mere matter of hours after the guy was here, THE OVEN WON'T COME ON AGAIN! AARGH?!

No News is NOT Good News

So, yeah, it's the end of the second week of school, and I don't have a job.

Well, l suppose that isn't, at least for the time being [i.e. the next few days], entirely true.

You may recall, a few posts back, that a friend of mine [Monica] from my credential program got a one year Kindergarten position. Yeah, this is the one whose school I went to to help her set up her classroom. Uh huh, this is also the one where there was a chance that there might be a last minute opening for a K/1 teacher [which, ultimately, didn't end up happening]. Well, she called me last Thursday morning to inform me that the school has given her a full-time sub to assist her in her room. You see, it is law that a Kindergarten classroom may not have more than 20 kids, and, right now, she has 26 [TWENTY SIX!]. The district has 10 days from the first day of school to find placements for the 6 overflow kids, and, in the meantime, she gets to have another teacher in the room for extra classroom support. She called me and extended the opportunity to me to be her extra support. So, there I've been for the last 4 school days, and, let me tell you, it hasn't been a walk in the park. These kids are, for the most part, a bunch of wild animals. Being in there helping out has almost made me glad that I didn't get a job. People, it's chaos. These Kinders are SO not ready to be in school for 6 hours everyday. They get cranky easily, they play around, they don't listen, they grab each other, they laugh when you get stern with them, they mock, they refuse orders, they cry, they pout, they want their mommies. Miles' classroom was NEVER like this. And, Monica and I are pretty much at a loss since this is the first time either of us has had a class of "our" own and our program NEVER prepared us for this. Yeah, for some stupid reason, no one ever talked about classroom management [discipline], which is the NUMBER 1 thing that principals ask about in interviews. After all, you can't get any teaching done if the kids aren't listening attentively. I swear, one day, that I'm going to teach a class to prospective teachers that deals with all of the practical stuff that was never discussed in either of the programs that I went through. The semester will focus on managment, setting up a classroom, what to do with the kids during the first couple of weeks of school, how to deal with parents and conduct effective parent/teacher conferences, how to stay healthy among all of the snotty-nosed students, how to get kids to stand in a line with their mouths closed and their hands to themselves, and the art of a good read aloud [a.k.a. storytime].

Being in this classroom with Monica is so weird and awkward - it's like I'm student teaching again, not really knowing what my place is in the room. I don't want to discipline too much - I'm just there for extra support - because I don't want these kids to get used to having me around all of the time, and get used to my methods of management. This jerky 1st grade teacher across the hall told Monica that since I'm a credentialed teacher I should be taking half of the class next door [to the emptly classroom where there was a K/1 class last year...] so that we can get more done in a day without having to contantly put out all of the fires that 26 rugrats can generate at any and every given moment. Well, I think that is stupid. I don't think that the kids should get used to being split in half and taught by me, either. I'M NOT GOING TO BE THEIR TEACHER. They need to get used to working as a whole class.

Everyday, at various [i.e. MANY] times, Monica turns to me and gives me this look like, "Dude, I'm so freakin' exhausted. I can't take it anymore." Everyday after school she says to me, "Dude, I'm so freakin' exhausted. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to quit." I don't blame her - it's ROUGH in there. These kids just don't respect either of us. Frankly, I think part of it is the planning - meaning, I don't think that Monica is planning enough, and not planning what she has planned all the way through. I told her this, and she got a bit offended, but understood what I was saying. I would FREAK OUT if the kids walked into the room and I wasn't 100% prepared - everything in its place for the day, worksheets torn out of the workbooks, things photocopied and within easy reach, knowing exactly what I was going to say during each lesson, having things to do just in case there is "extra time", etc. Yeah, she got the job a week before school started, but I can see ways that I would've done things much differently with that week if it were my job. I'd have a tape line on the floor by the door so that they know where they need to stand in order to form a straight line [which they can't do AT ALL]. I'd have... Oh, I don't know. There are a lot of ways I would do things differently, and that knowledge hurts. Where's MY classroom, dammit?

Yesterday, as I was setting up the room next door so that I could do a math lesson with half of the class [yeah, even though I somewhat object to the idea, we've still been doing it...], I ran into a woman who had been lurking in the hallways all day setting up all of the stuff for a Book Fair that the school is having next week. I said to her, "Seeing these big portable shelving units takes me back. When I was in elementary school I LOVED it when the Book Fair came to town. It just excited me." She told me that she was a parent who volunteered to do it every year, and then asked me what the situation was in the classroom that I was supporting. I told her all about the overflow of kids and stuff and she asked, "So, wait. Are you a credentialed teacher?" I told her that I had just gotten my credential last December and she countered with, "But, certainly you must have a lot of experience subbing and working with kids in general, right?" I wasn't sure what she was getting at so she said, "Well, to tell you the truth, I thought that YOU were the real teacher. You definitely seem WAY more seasoned than the teacher that is in there now." Wow - rush. You better believe that I didn't mention this conversation to Monica...

I had an interview this morning for a temporary [now through Christmas] customer service position at an online used book company that a friend works for. I figured that I'd go for it so that I would at least have some steady work through the end of the year, and I really didn't want to have to sub everyday because, well, as I'm sure I've mentioned, SUBBING SUCKS. Well, I just got the call that I didn't get one of the positions. WHY CAN'T I CATCH A FUCKING BREAK??

I'm going to look into Library Science programs. Being in Monica's classroom has made me question whether I really even want my own classroom at this point. I've always had it in the back of my mind that I might want to, down the road, either do Administration [I'd be the best Principal EVER!], child counseling [being a school counselor], or being a school librarian. Luckily, one of the only 2 Library Science programs in the state is at San Jose State. It looks like there is a special program that would take a year, full-time, for people who already have teaching credentials. I have fond memories of going to the local library as a kid, searching through the stacks for a good book, listening to a story read out loud, and kicking ass in a summer reading program contest. Strangely, I talked a few weeks back with a sort of "new agey" woman from my program. We were commiserating about not having teaching jobs and she, in her wise mentor way, said, "You know, maybe you are limiting your view of what your skill set qualifies you to do. Maybe you should look at other job opportunities that still relate to teaching, but don't involve being in a classroom everyday." This librarian thing could be just the ticket. Now, I know that it would kill a lot of people to hear that I just got done going back to school for 4 years to get my teaching credential and now I might not want to even pursue teaching anymore, but, to that I say, well, it's still in the same realm of careers. It's not like I'm doing a 180-degree turn and deciding that I want to be a pastry chef [which I've considered...] instead of a teacher now. Heck, I've even always considered writing a children's book, so this library thing isn't so off the mark, and could even be a step in that direction. I could be the next Arnold Lobel or Tomie dePaola!

Oh, on a completely different note, our oven doesn't work, and hasn't worked for over 3 weeks now. We're finding it very difficult to live without our broiler since pork loin, chicken breasts, and cheeseburgers had become part of our weekly menus. I've called our landlord contact woman NUMEROUS times, and every time the woman tells us, "Oh, ok, I'll look into it." This week I got fed up and called every afternoon. It seems to be a relatively minor problem - we can see that the pilot light is still on, but the long coily-thing that spreads the flame along the bottom of the oven just won't catch alight. I told this to the woman and she eventually told us that some guys would be out to just give us a whole new stove. Well, today some men were supposed to be out around 2pm [either to fix the oven, or give us an entirely new stove - it's unclear at this very moment which it will be]. It's now 3:45pm and I've heard no word. I, again, called the lady and someone else there told me our woman was on another call. Yeah, right. I know she's just avoiding us - but, We will not be ignored!